Risk & Business Magazine Spectrum Insurance Magazine - Spring 2019 | Page 26

SOCIAL ENGINEERING
Social Engineering:
An Increasing
Risk That Requires
Increased Coverage
O
rganizations of all sizes,
across all regions and in
all business sectors, face
an evolving risk from
cyber criminals. As
businesses have become increasingly
dependent upon technology, criminals
have shifted from theft of physical
assets to the theft of electronic
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information. The growing use of
technology-enabled processes exposes
businesses to cybercrime—from direct
theft of data (leading to the potential
loss of financial assets) to the theft
of personal data (that can be used to
assemble an attack on financial assets).
Cybercrime can threaten processes from
point-of-sale purchases by debit/credit
BY: DARREL ZALESKI
OWNER, SPECTRUM INSURANCE
cards in the retail environment, to ATM
transactions in the banking environment,
to e-commerce or online sales, to
electronic business communications.
Recent studies illustrate the wide-
ranging threat of electronic crime.
In 2017, more than three of four (78
percent) respondents to the US State of